Wood Flooring Types

There are many wood flooring types. Choosing the right type of flooring for your home is important. Here is a guide that will help you pick the right type of wooden flooring for your house.

Pragya T

Last Updated: Oct 08, 2018

Selecting a wooden flooring depends upon many factors. Some main factors are the budget, the type of installation of the product, and the way the flooring looks. Most expensive type of wood flooring is hardwood, a very high-quality wooden flooring. However, if you are low on budget you can opt for bamboo flooring.

Selecting the installation type of flooring is very important, if you wish to install the flooring yourself, and want to save the money then you can opt for laminate flooring or the click and lock type of planks. Looks also matter when it comes to wooden flooring, you can go for the classic look of hardwood flooring.

However, if you don't want to spend on expensive hardwood flooring then you can go for engineered wood flooring type. In this type you can find practically any color of your choice, so that you can match it with your home decor.

Solid Wooden Floors

This flooring comes in three main types, each type comes with an unfinished and a pre-finished version. Unfinished planks need to be sanded before installation, and pre-finished planks are already sanded.

The first type is strip flooring, which is denoted by the thickness and width of the wooden planks. Strip flooring has a fixed width but the thickness can vary. Second type is the plank flooring, which comes in two thicknesses but unlike strip flooring its width can vary.

The third is the parquet flooring type which has a very different look from typical hardwoods. These are made of geometric patterns composed of individual wood slats held in their place by adhesive or mechanical fastening.

Engineered Wooden Floors

It is made by adhering layers of plastic laminate veneer with real wood. The main difference between laminate and engineered flooring is that laminate flooring contains no actual wood. Engineered flooring can be installed as a floating floor on top of any type of sub-floor.

Acrylic-impregnated Wooden Floors

This flooring is infused with a sealant and colored throughout the thickness of the wood. So, what is seen as the finish of the wood surface is consistent throughout the wood.

Acrylic-impregnated flooring is commonly used in commercial projects. Like hardwood flooring, it is very hard and highly-resistant to scratches and moisture.

Laminate Wooden Floors

Laminate flooring due to its easy installation is a popular choice.

This wood is placed on top of a core board made of compressed fibers, then the material is covered in a melamine wear layer, which gives the laminate flooring its famed toughness. This flooring is easy-to-clean and is scratch-resistant.

Bamboo Floors

Bamboo flooring is not a wooden flooring, because bamboo is considered to be a grass. Bamboo flooring is half or less the price of hardwood flooring, because bamboo being a grass has a short harvest cycle.

While hardwood trees take around 10 times longer to grow. Bamboo flooring comes in many types, and on the planks one can see the strands of bamboo stalks. Good-quality bamboo flooring is scratch and moisture-resistant.